Foucault News

News and resources on French thinker Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Moreno-Mulet, C., Valdivielso-Navarro, J., Miró-Bonet, M., Carrero-Planells, A., Gastaldo, D.
Transgressive Acts: Michel Foucault’s Lessons on Resistance for Nurses
(2025) Nursing Philosophy, 26 (1), art. no. e70008

DOI: 10.1111/nup.70008

Abstract
In this paper, we bring together Foucault’s biography and oeuvre to explore key concepts that support the analysis of nurses’ acts of resistance. Foucault reflected on the power relations taking place in health services, making his contribution especially useful for the analysis of resistance in this context. Over three decades, he proposed a nonnormative philosophy while concomitantly engaging in transgressive practices guided by values such as human rights and social justice. Hence, Foucault’s philosophy and public activism are an apparent contradiction, but we argue that when analysed together they allow for a different understanding of his work. We describe the evolution of the concept of resistance in Foucault’s work, supported by the approaches of Brent Picket (1996) and Miguel Morey (2013).

Foucault started his work considering the idea of transgressiveness as it connects to being at the margins of society. He then spent considerable time elaborating the concept of power and identifying resistance strategies as forms of power exercise. In doing so, he considered that people engage with social change from multiple positions, including limited desire for change, fomenting reforms, or engaging in everyday revolutionary acts. As he further elaborated on power relations and defined resistance, Foucault asserted that resistance involves both repressive and productive dimensions of power, governance of biological life, state governance, and deliberate practices of illegalisms. Finally, Foucault shifted his attention to the freedom of ethical subjects, proposing the use of counter-conduct and counter-discourses to speak truth against oppression. Such framework offers a comprehensive lens for analysing nurses’ acts of resistance within the complexities of the healthcare system and in society. In summary, Foucault’s conceptual framework on resistance expands the role of nurses, to understand them not only as caregivers, but also as political agents capable of confronting and transforming oppressive institutional practices. © 2024 The Author(s). Nursing Philosophy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Author Keywords
ethics; Foucault; healthcare; nursing philosophy; power; resistance

Index Keywords

behavior, human, nurse, philosophy, psychology; Humans, Nurses, Philosophy, Nursing, Power, Psychological

Open access directories
A new resource page on Foucault News

[Editor]: Accessing electronically published scholarly material can be difficult for those with no formal affiliation to a university – and this includes former long-standing staff members. Even people working within the system can run into problems of access for a variety of reasons. This is usually more to do with the rules set in place by the large commercial publishers of books and databases rather than individual university libraries, who are often struggling to do their best with limited resources.

The Open access movement in its various iterations seeks to address this problem. I have put together this page to assist in finding the relevant directories. The page can be found under the Foucault Resources tab at the top of the site. Do let me know either via email or in the comments on the page if anything is missing.

Hiba, B.
If you don’t problematize it, you won’t see it, and you won’t understand it
(2025) New Ideas in Psychology, 77, art. no. 101141

DOI: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2024.101141

Abstract
This paper critically redefines problematization as both a research method and a transformative approach to critical thinking, positioning it as a pivotal modus operandi that transcends the limitations of conventional research practices. Diverging from traditional established research methods focused on gap-spotting and incremental contributions, this paper underscores problematization’s unique capacity to interrogate and disrupt the foundational assumptions underpinning existing knowledge structures. By doing so, it drives researchers to reimagine and expand the horizons of scholarly inquiry. Grounded in the intellectual contributions of Nietzsche, Foucault, Marx, Heidegger, Deleuze, and Lacan, this paper addresses the theoretical limitations of the discourse about problematization, often clouded by complex philosophical jargon, while dismantling misconceptions about its nature and application. Beyond theoretical exploration, this paper introduces a practical framework that integrates innovative metaphors, discursive clarity, and actionable strategies.

This framework is tailored to empower doctoral students and early-career researchers, equipping them with a taxonomy of epistemological and critical questions for effectively problematizing research problems. The research questions guiding this paper investigate how problematization can be reinterpreted and operationalized to challenge the ideological and power dynamics within dominant research paradigms. Furthermore, this paper explores how a multi-modal approach—combining rhizomatic, genealogical, visual, metaphorical, and ecological thinking—can deepen the practice of problematization. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd

Author Keywords

Ecological thinking; Genealogical thinking; Ideology; Metaphorical thinking; Power dynamics; Problematization; Research methodology; Rhizomatic thinking

Shelley Lynn Tremain, Ed. The Bloomsbury Guide to Philosophy of Disability, Bloomsbury, 2024

Description
The Bloomsbury Guide to Philosophy of Disability is a revolutionary collection encompassing the most innovative and insurgent work in philosophy of disability. Edited and anthologized by disabled philosopher Shelley Lynn Tremain, this book challenges how disability has historically been represented and understood in philosophy: it critically undermines the detrimental assumptions that various subfields of philosophy produce; resists the institutionalized ableism of academia to which these assumptions contribute; and boldly articulates new anti-ableist, anti-sexist, anti-racist, queer, anti-capitalist, anti-carceral, and decolonial insights and perspectives that counter these assumptions.

This rebellious and groundbreaking book’s chapters–most of which have been written by disabled philosophers–are wide-ranging in scope and invite a broad readership. The chapters underscore the eugenic impetus at the heart of bioethics; talk back to the whiteness of work on philosophy and disability with which philosophy of disability is often conflated; and elaborate phenomenological, poststructuralist, and materialist approaches to a variety of phenomena. Topics addressed in the book include: ableism and speciesism; disability, race, and algorithms; race, disability, and reproductive technologies; disability and music; disabled and trans identities and emotions; the apparatus of addiction; and disability, race, and risk. With cutting-edge analyses and engaging prose, the authors of this guide contest the assumptions of Western disability studies through the lens of African philosophy of disability and the developing framework of crip Filipino philosophy; articulate the political and conceptual limits of common constructions of inclusion and accessibility; and foreground the practices of epistemic injustice that neurominoritized people routinely confront in philosophy and society more broadly.

A crucial guide to oppositional thinking from an international, intersectional, and inclusive collection of philosophers, this book will advance the emerging field of philosophy of disability and serve as an antidote to the historical exclusion of disabled philosophers from the discipline and profession of philosophy.

The Bloomsbury Guide to Philosophy of Disability is essential reading for faculty and students in philosophy, disability studies, political theory, Africana studies, Latinx studies, women’s and gender studies, LGBTQ studies, and cultural studies, as well as activists, cultural workers, policymakers, and everyone else concerned with matters of social justice.

Zaharijević, A., & Urošević, M. (2024). Resistance as desubjectivation in Foucault. Philosophy & Social Criticism

https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537241284544

Abstract
The article scrutinizes Foucault’s articulations of resistance, arguing against the entrenched understanding that resistance in Foucault is necessarily negative, or impossible. We concentrate on a specific period of his work, situated between the disciplinary phase and the beginning of the 1980s when Foucault began to develop the idea of the aesthetic of existence. We argue that in this period Foucault developed the notion of resistance as agentic, lived and possible, through three interrelated concepts. These are reverse discourse, counter-conduct and the critical attitude, elaborated in The History of Sexuality Vol. 1, the course Security, Territory, Population and the lecture ‘What is Critique?’. The link between these concepts is provided by the effect they produce, captured by Foucault’s understanding of desubjectivation. Our claim is that Foucault reorients his work towards studying subjectivity through articulating resistance as desubjectivation. The main claim of the article is that Foucault not only allows for the possibility of resistance, but that his attempts to calibrate what it may mean to resist led him to fine-tune his understanding of power. Foucault arrived at power as subjection through the gradual development of resistance as desubjectivation.

Keywords
Foucault, resistance, reverse discourse, counter-conduct, critique, desubjectivation

Hickman, Robin, Ping Lu, and André Botermans. . “The Discourse of Cycling in Houten.” Journal of Urban Design, January 2025, 1–21.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2024.2441133

ABSTRACT
This paper aims to understand the critical factors behind the development of contemporary cycling practice in Houten, the Netherlands. Eighteen in-depth interviews, with transport and urban planning experts and residents, are used to examine the discourse of cycling in Houten. Beyond the cycling infrastructure, the key socio-historical factors associated with the discourse of cycling in Houten are the regional and urban planning approach, planning objectives for the new town, internal neighbourhood design, regional transport connections, the participatory approach and experience of travel behaviours in Houten.

KEYWORDS:
Cycling discourse urban planning new town Houten

Delf Rothe, Christine Hentschel, Ursula Schröder,
Recomposing the climate-security nexus: A conceptual introduction,
Geoforum, Volume 159, 2025,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104195

Abstract:

What is security in an age of catastrophic climate change? This conceptual introduction to the special issue “Critical Climate Security” develops a new theoretical approach to studying the complex linkages between climate change, security, and conflict. Through a comprehensive review, it identifies three ways of theorizing the climate-security nexus in the existing literature: as a set of causal relations, as a discourse, and as a field of practice. To transcend these ideal types and capture the climate-security nexus in its multiplicity, we propose to theorize it as a composition. This approach is attentive to the material, discursive, affective, practical, spatial, and temporal dimensions of the nexus and puts a focus on change through processes of composing and recomposing. Acknowledging the crucial role of the researcher in composing climate security, it also offers new ways of practicing critique. While critical research on climate security in the past often focused on debunking taken-for-granted knowledge and deconstructing hegemonic discourses, our perspective outlines how climate security could be recomposed around new “matters of care”, and thus be gradually reoriented toward more progressive goals. In this way, our approach is also a proposal to think differently about the future of climate security: beyond the established pathways of either dystopian catastrophe or utopian promise. Instead, a compositional approach requires a constant commitment to practices of protecting, caring, and repairing, also in the sense of reparation: not just as compensation for past damages but as a future-oriented project of world-making in which redistribution and just transformation matter.

Keywords:
Anthropocene; Climate change; Composition; Conflict; Critique; Security

Dossier: Foucault, 40 años después: Foucault desde el Sur Global (No. 41)
EN EL MARCO DEL WORLD CONGRESS: FOUCAULT 40 YEARS AFTER

Dossier: Foucault desde el Sur Global (No. 41)

Dossier: Foucault from the Global South (No. 41)

Coordinadores / Coordinators:

Hugo David Tavera Villegas
Bertha Bermúdez Tapia

FECHA LÍMITE DE ENVÍO: 17 DE FEBRERO DE 2025

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: FEBRUARY 17th, 2025

CONVOCATORIA EN ESPAÑOL (ENGLISH BELOW)

A cuarenta años de su fallecimiento, la obra de Michel Foucault sigue ejerciendo una considerable influencia dentro de una amplia variedad de disciplinas y campos de investigación, incluidas la filosofía, la sociología, la teoría política, la teología, la psicología, la arquitectura, las ciencias de la salud, la ética y la sexualidad, entre otras. En buena parte impulsado por la publicación póstuma de sus cursos dictados en el College de France, así como de otra clase de materiales orales como conferencias y seminarios, el número de escritos y de eventos académicos dedicados a su pensamiento no ha dejado de crecer en el último tiempo. Este dossier de la revista CONfines pretende reunir artículos inéditos acerca del pensamiento de Foucault que estén concebidos desde una perspectiva desde/sobre el Sur Global. Nuestro objetivo con este nuevo número es el de contribuir a los estudios foucaultianos ofreciendo a nuestros lectores un conjunto de artículos que aborden problemáticas del Sur Global a través de conceptos y herramientas analíticas tomadas de la obra de Foucault.

El dossier se encuentra enmarcado en las conmemoraciones por los cuarenta años desde su muerte ocurrida en junio de 1984. Como Revista CONfines decidimos sumarnos a la convocatoria lanzada por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid para la realización de diversos eventos y publicaciones con el objeto de discutir el legado intelectual del filósofo e historiador francés. Dentro de este contexto, el dossier acompaña a la Conferencia “Foucault desde el Sur Global”, organizada por integrantes del Departamento de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales del Tecnológico de Monterrey, campus Monterrey, que se realizará de manera virtual el 17 de octubre del presente año. Tanto la Conferencia como el dossier especial de nuestra Revista constituyen una excelente oportunidad para abordar críticamente el trabajo y conceptos de Foucault desde las exigencias de nuestro complicado presente.

¿Qué pueden ofrecernos las herramientas analíticas de Foucault a quienes investigamos acerca/desde el Sur Global? ¿Cuáles son las aportaciones de conceptos como los de biopolítica o gubernamentalidad en el contexto de investigaciones sobre migraciones o la gestión de las fronteras? ¿Pueden las reflexiones de Foucault sobre la vigilancia y el castigo echar luz sobre los debates en torno al fenómeno de la violencia, los ilegalismos y la crisis de seguridad por la que atraviesan actualmente nuestros países? ¿Qué hay de la crisis climática, de su gestión y de sus consecuencias sobre las poblaciones -humanas y no-humanas- en los países del Sur Global? Las anteriores son tan solo algunas de las interrogantes a las que invitamos a los y las autoras a contribuir.

En línea con las temáticas de la Conferencia “Foucault desde el Sur Global”, el dossier se estructurará en torno a tres ejes temáticos principales: a) biopolítica, movilidad humana y migraciones; b) violencias, vigilancia y control social, y c) gubernamentalidad, gobernanza ambiental y crisis climática. Si bien se privilegiarán los envíos que se ajusten a estas líneas temáticas, no se descartarán trabajos que aborden otras problemáticas del/desde el Sur Global.

Como guía general para los y las autoras, se sugieren los siguientes temas:

La gestión de poblaciones migrantes
Biopolítica y frontera en los procesos migratorios contemporáneos
Gobernanza y gubernamentalidad en el gobierno del tránsito migratorio
Gobierno de la migración y subjetividad migrante
Violencia policial y militar en el marco de política de seguridad
Prisiones y otras formas de sanción de los ilegalismos en clave contemporánea
La sociedad punitiva: cambios y continuidades
Desarrollo tecnológico y nuevos dispositivos de vigilancia y control
El gobierno de la naturaleza en la era del Antropoceno
Biopolítica y conservación en las geografías del Sur Global
Crisis climática y gobernanza ambiental en el Sur Global

Se recibirán trabajos escritos en español o inglés con una extensión mínima de 6 mil y máxima de 8 mil palabras (resumen y notas al pie incluidas). Las referencias bibliográficas se enlistan al final del documento y no serán consideradas en el conteo de palabras.

Los trabajos deberán cumplir, además, con los siguientes lineamientos de formato:

Documento Word, espaciado 1.5 líneas, márgenes superior e inferior de 2.5 cm e izquierdo y derecho de 3 centímetros;
Fuente Times New Roman de 12 puntos;
Título del artículo, en español y en inglés;
Un resumen de máximo 120 palabras, en español y en inglés;
Un recuento de tres a cinco palabras clave en español y en inglés;
Referencias bibliográficas en formato APA (Edición 7), tanto en el cuerpo del texto como en la recapitulación final;
En notas de pie de página solo se aceptan comentarios aclaratorios y sugerencias que amplíen la discusión. No debe incluir referencias;
Si el artículo contiene figuras, deben contar con los permisos de reproducción. Deben ser enviadas, en archivo separado, en formato JPEG o TIFF con una resolución de 360 dpi y en escala de grises. En el cuerpo del texto, se indicará cuál sería la colocación más adecuada de la figura, por ejemplo: [FIGURA 1 Aquí]

Las contribuciones deberán enviarse a más tardar el 17 de febrero de 2025 a través del sistema editorial en línea gestionado por el Open System Journal (OJS). Los trabajos deberán ser inéditos. No deben haberse publicado con anterioridad ni estar en proceso de dictamen en otras revistas. Para garantizar el anonimato en el proceso de dictaminación, los trabajos deberán omitir el o los nombres de las y los autores y cualquier referencia a éstos. Sin embargo, a través de la plataforma OJS, las y los autores deberán proveer a la revista de la siguiente información:

Nombre(s) y apellido(s) tal y como aparecerán en el artículo, en caso de ser publicado
Ciudad y país de residencia
Institución de adscripción actual
Breve currículum (no más de 5 líneas) que incluya máximo grado académico y la institución donde lo obtuvo, principales líneas de investigación y sus más recientes publicaciones (máximo 3).

Los manuscritos serán sometidos a un proceso de doble dictaminación por pares y, en caso de ser rechazado, el texto no podrá ser presentado nuevamente a la revista. Una vez aceptados los trabajos para su publicación, en el caso de que lo sean, los autores deberán enviar una carta de cesión de derechos según el formato que les sea remitido.

CALL FOR PAPERS (ENGLISH)

Forty years after his death, Michel Foucault’s work continues to exert considerable influence within a wide variety of disciplines and fields of research, including philosophy, sociology, political theory, theology, psychology, architecture, health sciences, ethics and sexuality, among others. Largely driven by the posthumous publication of his courses given at the College de France, as well as other oral materials such as lectures and seminars, the number of writings and academic events devoted to his thought has been growing steadily in recent times. This dossier of the journal CONfines aims to bring together unpublished articles on Foucault’s thought that are conceived from a perspective from/about the Global South. Our aim with this new issue is to contribute to Foucauldian studies by offering our readers a set of articles that address issues of the Global South through concepts and analytical tools taken from Foucault’s work.

The dossier is framed in the commemorations for the fortieth anniversary of his death in June 1984. As CONfines Magazine we decided to join the call launched by the Complutense University of Madrid for the realization of various events and publications to discuss the intellectual legacy of the French philosopher and historian. Within this context, the dossier accompanies the Conference “Foucault from the Global South”, organized by members of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey campus, to be held virtually on October 17 of this year. Both the Conference and the special dossier of our Journal are an excellent opportunity to critically approach Foucault’s work and concepts from the demands of our complicated present.

What can Foucault’s analytical tools offer to those of us who research about/from the Global South? What are the contributions of concepts such as biopolitics or governmentality in the context of research on migration or border management? Can Foucault’s reflections on surveillance and punishment shed light on the debates around the phenomenon of violence, illegalisms and the security crisis that our countries are currently going through? What about the climate crisis, its management and its consequences on populations -human and non-human- in the countries of the Global South? These are just some of the questions to which we invite the authors to contribute.

In line with the themes of the “Foucault from the Global South” Conference, the dossier will be structured around three main thematic axes: a) biopolitics, human mobility and migrations; b) violence, surveillance and social control, and c) governmentality, environmental governance and climate crisis. Although submissions along these thematic lines will be privileged, works that address other issues of/from the Global South will not be discarded.

As a general guide for authors, the following topics are suggested:

– Management of migrant populations

– Biopolitics and borders in contemporary migratory processes

– Governance and governmentality in the government of migratory transit

– Migration governance and migrant subjectivity

– Police and military violence in the security policy framework

– Prisons and other forms of punishment of illegalisms in a contemporary perspective

– The punitive society: changes and continuities

– Technological development and new surveillance and control devices

– The governance of nature in the Anthropocene era

– Biopolitics and Conservation in the Geographies of the Global South

– Climate crisis and environmental governance in the Global South

Papers written in Spanish or English will be accepted with a minimum length of 6,000 and a maximum of 8,000 words (abstract and footnotes included). Bibliographical references are listed at the end of the paper and will not be considered in the word count.

Papers must also comply with the following format guidelines:

Word document, 1.5 line spacing, 2.5 cm top and bottom margins and 3 cm left and right margins;
12 point Times New Roman font;
Title of the article, in Spanish and English;
An abstract of no more than 120 words, in English and Spanish;
A count of three to five key words in Spanish and English;
Bibliographic references in APA format (Edition 7), both in the body of the text and in the final summary;
In footnotes, only clarifying comments and suggestions that broaden the discussion are accepted. It should not include references;
If the article contains figures, they must have the reproduction permissions. They should be sent, in a separate file, in JPEG or TIFF format with a resolution of 360 dpi and in grayscale. In the body of the text, the most appropriate placement of the figure should be indicated, for example: [FIGURE 1 Here].

Contributions must be submitted no later than February 17, 2025 through the online editorial system managed by the Open System Journal (OJS). Papers must be unpublished. They should not have been published previously or be in the process of being reviewed in other journals. To guarantee anonymity in the review process, the papers should omit the name(s) of the authors and any reference to them. However, through the OJS platform, authors should provide the journal with the following information:

Name(s) and surname(s) as they will appear in the article, if published
City and country of residence
Current institution of assignment
Brief curriculum vitae (no more than 5 lines) including maximum academic degree and the institution where it was obtained, main lines of research and most recent publications (maximum 3).

Manuscripts will be submitted to a double peer review process and, in case of rejection, the text cannot be resubmitted to the journal. Once the papers have been accepted for publication, in the event that they are accepted, the authors must send a letter of assignment of rights according to the format that will be sent to them.

Pietro Barbetta, Giovanni Mascaretti, Lorenzo Petrachi (eds), Michel Foucault.Quarant’anni e poi, Orthotes Editrice, 2024

Sono trascorsi quarant’anni dalla scomparsa di Michel Foucault. Da allora, il corpus foucaultiano e i suoi utilizzi non hanno fatto che moltiplicarsi, diffondersi e diffrangersi, incontrando sulla loro strada movimenti sociali, studi post-coloniali e di genere, letterature e torsioni filosofiche inattese.

Questo volume, dal respiro internazionale, si propone di tracciare un bilancio e di esplorare alcune tra le frontiere più vivaci del foucaultismo contemporaneo.

Saggi di:

Pietro Barbetta, Jean-François Bayart, Renato Busarello, Judith Butler, Eleonora de Conciliis, Jurandir Freire Costa, Ruby Faure, Paola Gandolfi, Béatrice Hibou, Orazio Irrera, Daniele Lorenzini, Giovanni Mascaretti, Lorenzo Petrachi, Arianna Sforzini, Mohamed Tozy, Enrico Valtellina, Federico Zappino